MUSIC
LET IT ROCK
Willie Nile on his latest release, The Day The Earth Stood Still
BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH
T
I’ve wanted to put out some positive stuff. The new one is just a reaction to what everybody’s going through this year, not just here in New York but everywhere.
HE DAY THE EARTH STOOD Still is the title of a classic sci-fi film but it’s also the name of the 14th studio album from veteran New York rocker New York has been quite the muse for your Willie Nile. On the new album, Nile is not work throughout your career. After forty only describing the mood of his beloved years, it seems you continue to find new New York City in the eerie throes of the perspectives of it and fresh ways to be pandemic, he’s speaking about the general inspired by it. temperature of the world in nightmarish, It’s still teaching me things. I love the code-red crisis mode, circa January 2021. city. It fascinates me to no end and next But he’s a rock and roller at heart, so year, it’ll be 50 years, coming and going. even though the message is You see the good, the bad and crucial, the new songs offer ugly - and the beautiful I HOPE TO the a kinetic catharsis with equal and the not so beautiful. I love does of humor and pathos in the MAKE PEOPLE the cosmopolitan nature of lyrics. The 11-song set yearns and I could stand here STOP AND it.on You for “Sanctuary” as it details the my corner, on MacDougal “Way of the Heart,” cries out THINK AND and Bleecker, and in just a few for swift justice with “Blood On minutes, we’d hear four or five Your Hands” and salutes the late MAYBE ENJOY different languages from people Congressman John Lewis with THEMSELVES walking by. I dig that. it has an the stirring “The Justice Bell.” FOR A WHILE. energy that I feed off and it just Rollicking tracks, including continues to inspire me. “Off My Medication” and “Where There’s A Willie, There’s A What is the vibe there now? Last time Way” cleverly balance the set, featuring we talked, you said it was eerie because the self-depreciating humor and astute everything was closed down and pretty observational skills of the Buffalo-born much dead. singer-songwriter. With able support from Last year, it was totally haunting, totally his band, Nile and company remain on top eerie, just like The Walking Dead. Now of their game, riding an impressive curve it’s much, much more vibrant. People are of creativity that began in 1980 and kicked out and about, the streets are littered with into overdrive in 2006. the restaurants that are build out into the Hoarse on the morning after a marathon street, where cars would park. They’ve built CD release show in NYC, Nike spoke with these open-air, covered for rain-type spaces INsite from his home in Greenwich Village. and some of them are very elaborate. At night, you can hear the buzz of the city, How was the show last night at City the horns, the motorcycles, people talking, Winery? laughing, partying. It’s alive and well again. It was really epic. I was concerned, with But people are cautious and still wear masks COVID picking up, some audiences are when you go into places, but it’s alive. It’s getting more squeamish, careful about our job as neighbors to try to be conscious coming out and the hurricane here. I of each other, be conscientious and try to checked in with my agent and checked in protect our families and our neighbors. I’m with the venue, and they said they would doing my best to keep my end up with not go ahead with it. A lot of people came out, spreading this thing, you know? and the band and I, we played for over two hours. You can hear it in my voice, I’m sure. Let’s get back to the album a bit. You’ve It was one of the best shows we’ve ever said the late Congressman John Lewis done, ever. Played the new album top to inspired a track bottom and a song or two from New York on the record. At Night. Yeah, “The Justice Bell.” I Was it recorded or filmed for posterity? had the good There’s a guy making a documentary fortune to meet about me and he was there filming, so we Congressman got the audio as well as the film. I think Lewis about these are glory days for me in that I feel so three years ago. comfortable with the band on stage and in He was in New the studio, with my writing. I can’t control York to attend a anything about radio, the record business birthday party or whatever, but can control the songs I of Congressman write, the records I make and the shows we Joe Crowley, do. Since 2006, that’s been my entire focus. who’s been a I don’t force these records out. They just longtime friend occur to me. of mine. It was a birthday party at You’re definitely on a roll and this is the a club, Southside perfect follow-up to New York At Night. Johnny was the band and Caroline Kennedy It really feels like it is the right thing for was there. A few people came up from the the times. But these are dark times. The Senate and Congress. Congressman John records, I think they’re full of light. They’re Lewis walks in the room and I almost fell upbeat, they’re positive. There’s nittyon the floor. gritty and there’s “Blood On Your Hands” and some heavy stuff but ultimately the He was an inspirational man. After bottom line is they’re feel-good rock and meeting him, it felt like you’d visited with roll records. Everybody’s going through some sort of royalty, because he was a this nightmare of a pandemic and political true icon. confusion, people are not getting along, so
PG 12 • September 2021 • insiteatlanta.com
That’s well put. He was a national treasure. It was great to just shake his hand and to thank him for his efforts to try to make this a better country, to try to make it more fair for everyone. He was just a guy trying to do the right thing. When he spoke, I was like five feet from him and watching him and I couldn’t believe my eyes. So that inspired the song. A friend of mine in DC got it to his former Chief of Staff and he will get it to the family, which I’m very happy about. Yeah, you’re right, after you spoke with him, you felt lifted up, cleansed. The good thing about that meeting is you turned that moment into a piece of art. Not only did you feel good after speaking with him, you made a permanent record of the event. I’m so proud of it. I sent it to Noel Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary. We did all a WhyHunger event back in November last year online, so I met him through that. On the day I wrote it, I sent it to him and he said it reminded him of “If I Had A Hammer.” Ironically, the day we recorded it, was January 6th of this year. We were in the studio recording it and people kept coming in and saying, ‘You’ve got to watch what’s going on TV. There’s a riot in the
Capitol.’ And I went, ‘We’re too busy. Sorry, we’re recording this song.’ I had to get that song down because I wanted to share the message. Plus, as much as I love this country, we can’t control what anybody else does. We can only control what we each of us does, so we have to make it count. You’re really adhering to the folk tradition of inspirational, proactive storytelling. Well yeah, that’s the ultimate goal. But for me, I think all music is folk music. This is a pretty rocking record in that it’s rough, but I do love the tradition of writing about what’s around you, what’s going on in the world, in one form or another. It can take the form of a funny song, like “Off My Medication,” which is totally making fun of the surreal-ness of it all in an upbeat, rocking manner. It’s just fun to sing because it’s like Chuck Berry meeting Napoleon XIV. But I really do agree with the whole folk thing. I dig the mindset of accountability on a personal level. Ultimately, you write stuff for different reasons. I never was interested in being an American Idol. It’s the music that I love. It’s the songs that I’m here to stand up for and the message they bring. And if they rock, then that’s even better! I hope to make people stop and think and maybe enjoy themselves for a while. I’m definitely not up on stage, going, ‘listen to me, me, me.’ No, in my case, it’s ‘listen to this song, this song, this song.’ That’s what it’s all about. When the song is there, then it’s my job to just let it rock. The Day The Earth Stood Still is available from most music outlets and direct from the artist at willienile.com.
